Camden Fringe 2022 Interview: David Parry, The Grammar of Witchcraft

What does fringe theatre mean to you?

I keep being told that Fringe and Off West End is dying, or already dead. Statements which simply cannot be true due to the fact fringe festivals are more like creative laboratories than merely a series of productions that will probably not be embraced by the mainstream.

From my perspective Camden Fringe is the most significant gathering of performers and artists outside of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival itself. A celebration of life, truth, performance and the avant-garde. As such, the comedy festival is a vital component of future entertainments alongside genuine art seeking to analyse the cultures we inhabit accompanied by those methods required to transcend them.

If your show was a drink, what kind of drink would it be and why?

It would be a strawberry daiquiri, since it’s exotic and flavoursome, along with a touch of magick. Either way, I love strawberry daiquiris on the beach.

What’s something you wish more people knew?

When I first moved to London in the early 1980s, this city was really “something”. It had uniquely British features, a sense of enduring history and a fast array of opportunities for people either passing through or trying to establish themselves in the metropolis to gain a new and better life.

Sadly, many of these excellent attributes have disappeared, although I would argue they have been replaced with a far greater sense of minority rights, a sensitivity towards different communities and a genuine revolution in artistic expression. The only caveat I would add is that the level of theatrical openings needs to keep pace with a hugely multicultural, inclusive enrichment offered to British stagecraft by communities who no longer present audiences with superficial tasters of their culture, but much deeper performances presenting parallel worlds to anything European as well as highly energising alternative uses of the imagination.

Who or what inspires you?

Je suis August Strindberg? Either way, I find myself inspired by film-scripts written by H. G. Wells. Perhaps particularly from his masterful movie, The Man Who Could Work Miracles, whereby the character who has been given supernatural abilities is challenged by a fellow drinker in their local pub, The Long Dragon Inn, by the annoying phrase, “so you say”.

In this regard, or perhaps not, I have found myself using this comedic line in a number of settings usually to do with poetry slams and performances, while its sheer potency in getting up people’s noses makes it a gift to humankind. These sources of inspiration almost demand that something like The Grammar of Witchcraft is staged as an openly-transgressive performance, which wears a very happy smile on its face.